As the branding suggests, Plextor's 40X CD-RW drive should be significantly faster than their already well received 24X unit. In addition, this new drive boasts a 12X Re-Write speed which should bring approximately a 17% boost in performance to the table, on Re-writeable media. Finally, this extra performance is being made available to the consumer for roughly a $25 premium, as our recent findings, on various price search engines, show the 40X CD-RW at approximately $155 versus the 24X at $130. However, does this new Plextor speed burner really live up to the lofty goals of it's specifications? That's what we'll try to show you in this HotHardware look at the PleXWriter 40/12/40A.